Articles
Schneider Electric's Innovative Approach Succeeds In The U.K.
July 24, 2009
•Case Study: Schneider Electric's Innovative Approach Succeeds In The U.K.
By Schneider Electric
Northcombe Water Treatment Works currently supplies some 30 million litres per day of clean water to South West Water's customers, but ever-increasing demand means that, in the near future, the plant will need to increase its output to 50 million litres per day. Major upgrades will be necessary to make this possible and, at the same time, to further enhance the site's operating efficiency.
One significant obstacle that had to be overcome before the upgrades could be implemented was the limited capacity of the Modicon 984-685 programmable controller (PLC) that controlled almost half of the site's automation systems. While easily able to meet the current requirements when it was installed in the 1980s, this PLC now had little spare I/O capacity and no free program memory. In addition, there were concerns about its future maintenance. Although spares could still be obtained, they had been out of production for many years, and availability could not be expected to continue indefinitely.
The decision was, therefore, taken to replace the existing PLC with a much more versatile and capable modern unit. There was, however, a major issue that had to be addressed – so vital is the PLC to the operations on the site that it could not be out of commission for more than eight hours.
Click Here To Download:•Case Study: Schneider Electric's Innovative Approach Succeeds In The U.K.
